2011 Stasis Engineering Audi R8 5.2 Challenge Extreme Edition

It’s hard to improve on greatness, so when Stasis Engineering offered us a short drive of its modified Audi R8 Spyder, we were excited and skittish. The last time we debarked from a stock R8 5.2 FSI, we concluded that Audi had improved upon near-perfection. Could Stasis improve the R8 even further, or would its upgrades actually set the car back? We intend to find out.

So now I’m sitting in Stasis’ impeccable show car with Henry Hsu, the company’s director of engineering. When traffic clears, Hsu unhesitatingly double-slaps the R Tronic’s left paddle until a bright “2″ appears on the dash. Revs erupt as the twin oval pipes’ bark turns into a menacing roar. Eaton’s biggest automotive supercharger whines and churns at a maximum 7.5 PSI. Everything blurs. My eyes water. WHOA.

“Your turn,” the engineer says, grinning widely as he checks the car’s digitized vitals.

With 710 supercharged horsepower on tap, this 5.2 FSI Spyder is Stasis’ most powerful 50-state-legal creation, topping the brand’s two factory dealer-installed upgrades. (A milder 552-horsepower Touring Edition is the other.) Tacking on the aptly titled Challenge Extreme Edition badge gives a roots-type TVS 2300 blower with bespoke cooling system, ECU tuning, and a less restrictive, hand-welded 3-inch T-305 stainless steel exhaust. Our tester also sports revised suspension, forged aluminum wheels, Michelin Pilot Sport PS2 tires, and Alcon brakes with braided stainless steel lines and stickier pads.

At a crawl, the blown 5.2-liter V-10 corrals a herd of pent-up thrust — 523 pound-feet of torque support the buffed-out equines, much of them available below 5500 rpm. The TIG-welded exhaust grumbles and pops, but doesn’t have an ear-piercing drone. If a Dodge Viper SRT-10 and Lamborghini Murcielago LP640-4 Super Veloce ever made mechanical love, the result would sound like this. With 185 horsepower and 132 pound-feet over Neckarsulm’s base, this Spyder packs a very poisonous bite.

Audi A7 Sportback concept

Audi’s latest example of micro-nicheing made its motor show debut here in Paris. Outside, it’s striking how low this car appears to sit (although, at 1420mm high it’s taller than the A5 Sportback by 29 mm), an impression aided by the graceful arc of the beltline front to rear and its low-set intersection with the trailing edge of the trunk. One is drawn to the superb surface transition from fender to C-pillar, the helical detailing within the tail lamps and surface intersections radiused so tightly that they could almost be lead-filled and hand-finished. The stance of the vehicle is without reproach, appearing muscular and exceedingly elegant.

From the front we again had to play a game of guess-the-Audi, but the designers have shown as much restraint as is possible with their aggressive house DRG style. There are, of course, wonderfully intricate headlamp cans which, when specified with LEDs give a vision of a future where cars start to lose their human or animal facial characteristics, gaining something far more bionic instead.

Inside we find Audi at its predictable best with two surprising caveats. Firstly, while we welcome a return to the discretion of a fully retractable, integrated navigation screen, the chrome appliqué that crosses the IP and screen housing draws unnecessary attention to a surprisingly large gap. Secondly, in the press material Audi constantly references this car against the A8, but in execution and design the A7 is far more A6.

It’s fair to say that the A7 represents Audi at their current best and, unlike the quattro concept, the A7 only pays the subtlest of compliments to the first 100 coupé. The CDN team and many we spoke to felt the car remarkably Italianate for a brand, traditionally at least, so German. With Mercedes appearing increasingly Baroque and BMW returning to their southern European roots, maybe there’s room for Audi to return to the modern G-factor that made it so beguiling in the first place.

2010 MTM Audi R8 GT3-2

The MTM Audi R8 GT3-2 comes with a supercharged 4.2 FSI engine, producing 560 HP (412 kW) at 7.750 RPM and a torque of 580 Nm at 5.500 RPM. Enough power to accelerate from 0 to 100 km/h in 3.9 seconds and take the speedometer needle up to 317 km/h, barrier is no “Quattro” but a modified R8 with rear wheel drive from the Audi refiner MTM. With differential lock and new adjustments, the GT3-2 floats presently with its driving concept as the only one RWD Street-legal Audi, in the footsteps of the Audi high powered cars that are challenging the DTM or the GT Series.

 

The MTM Audi R8 GT3-2 also comes with a lightweight and solid MTM forged wheels on Dunlop Sport Maxx GT / Michelin Cup Sport tyres. The 20” rims in the size 9×20 ET 42 (front axle) and 12,5×20 ET 60 (rear axle) shelter the 380 x 34 mm – punched, ventilated – MTM brake system.

Audi A8 Reads the Competition a Bedtime Story in Cheeky Super Bowl Ad

Super Bowl XLV is still a fortnight-and-a-half away, but you can bet most (if not all) companies that have purchased advertising slots during the broadcast already have their commercials in the can and ready to go. Naturally, most advertisers want their spots to be a surprise right up until they flash onto our TV screens, but some are willing to unleash their manifestos early.

One such company is Audi. After three successive years of clever, memorable Super Bowl adverts (though we must confess that while we really, really dig the A3 TDI, last year’s effort was frankly a bit off-putting, having shown a world that seems all too plausible, particularly if you’re one of our fellow Californians), the German nameplate rolls into the 2011 edition of the big game still beating the same drum it was back when its 2008 adpremiered: Old luxury is dead. How’s Ingolstadt getting the message across this year? Jump!

While riffing on the popular children’s book Goodnight Moon probably isn’t the most obvious choice for a car commercial (or any commercial, for that matter), it’s hard to argue with the manner in which it was utilized. The visuals are Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous cranked to 11, meant to suggest that wretched excess and opulence on top of decadence are out. We can’t help noticing how well this message dovetails with the lingering global economic funk, in addition to Audi’s current modus operandi.

What would that be? Smart luxury, typified by an emphasis on technology and engineering plus styling that’s purposeful yet restrained in the classic Teutonic mold. At the risk of sounding like victims of advertising (We’re genuinely shocked that there are not yet lawyers specializing in that field. What would their ads even sound like? “Hi, I’m Danny Berkowitz! Have you or someone you loved bought some crap you really don’t need solely because of some flashy commercial? Call me at 1(888)…”), we really can’t argue with any of that, especially when it shows up on an A8 in the form of things like analuminum spaceframe, all-LED headlights and a stonking V8 matched with Quattro all-wheel-drive.

By the way, it wouldn’t be entirely crazy to assume we’ll have all the other car companies’ Super Bowl XLV commercials collected in one handy post,just like last year. Consider yourselves warned.